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THE    DIVINE  QUESTION 

B  Y 

LIONEL      JOSAPHARE  /^7^ 


PUBLISHED  BY 
A.  M.  ROBERTSON 
SAN      FRANCISCO 


9m^, 


THE      THADDEUS       BARR     PRESS 


PREFACE   AND   ANNOUNCEMENT 

This,  the  first  number  of  the  Flame  Series,  ap- 
pears with  the  title  "The  Divine  Question."  The 
Series  is  to  be  published  for  six  months  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  first  number  of  this  or  any  subsequent 
volume. 

Within  the  last  hundred  years,  so  much  thought 
has  been  directed  upon  the  faith  cherished  by 
visible  humanity  for  the  Invisible  that  a  change 
of  opinion  is  necessarily  to  come.  Man  is  at  present 
taking  his  own  testimony.  He  no  longer  looks  on 
ancient  history  as  something  sacred ,  but  assumes  the 
same  freedom  from  the  assertiveness  of  the  past  that 
he  does  in  his  governments  of  the  present. 

In  this  volume  due  respect,  but  not  undue  rever- 
ence is  granted  the  older  teachings.  The  author  has 
not  undertaken  to  give  decision  for  or  against  any 
belief  or  lack  of  belief,  although  now  and  then  he 
may  seem  to  do  so  in  examining  their  contentions. 
The  article  may  also  seem  at  times  inconsistent,  some- 
times allowing  too  much  dignity  to  an  already  con- 
demned theory  or  asserting  new  ones  without  com- 
punction. This  is  in  accordance  with  the  design  of 
treating  all  theories  fairly.  The  article  is  merely  a 
hypothesis,  a  conjecture,  a  presentation  of  statement 
and  reasons.     Ignorance  debates  and  truth  decides. 

Ensuing  numbers  of  the  Flame  Series  will  be  de- 
voted to  lyiterature.  Politics,  Labor  and  other  fund- 
amental and  artistic  interests  of  the  period.  The  sub- 
ject matter  will  be  interesting  not  only  to  the  studen 


but  to  all  who  keep  in  mental  contact  with  liter- 
ature and  the  conditions  of  their  country  and  world. 

There  are  today  thinkers,  who  having  perused  the 
repeated  generalities  of  the  ordinary,  desire  to  read 
the  truth  beyond  editorial  diplomacy  when  that  dip- 
lomacy is  directed  to  the  prejudice  of  the  majorities 
of  patronage.  However,  the  greatest  number 
(though  not  for  commercial  purposes)  is  in  posterity; 
so  the  voice  of  the  people  is  never  quite  decisively 
the  voice  of  God  in  a  single  election  day. 

Truth  is  born  in  a  manger  and  does  not  acquire 
much  veneration  for  the  palaces  of  error,  pretentious 
though  they  be  in  the  long-standing  devotion  of 
men. 

The  articles  in  this  series  will  be  in  treatment  free 
as  thought,  yet  as  inoffensive  to  the  charitable  mind 
as  the  etiquette  of  judicious  language  can  make  them. 

The  leading  article  of  the  next  number  will  be 
by  Mr.  Christian  Binkley,  author  of  "Sonnets  and 
Songs  for  a  House  of  Days." 

(EDITOR) 


174073 


|UNIVERSlTy| 
THE    DIVINE    QUESTION 

BY 
LIONEL    JOSAPHARE 


In  behalf  of  this  epistle  I  claim  neither  origi- 
nality nor  learning.  So  that  its  better  parts 
may  be  attributed  to  others  and  its  error  to 
myself.  As  it  stands,  however,  the  document 
is  wider  in  scope  while  being  more  concise  in 
statement  and  less  tenacious  of  its  theories 
than  are  other  works  on  the  subject. 

While  religions  or  creeds  are  generally  con- 
tent in  making  a  guess  at  God  and  standing 
by  that  guess  throughout  a  lifelong  argument, 
this  paper  sets  forth  without  prejudice  the 
many  thoughts  that  might  envelope  the  mind 
of  a  man  who  makes  a  number  of  the- 
ories state  their  cases  and  give  their  evidence 
briefly  before  his  judgment. 

Therefore,  like  one  who  has  lost  his  way, 
I  approach  the  fortress  of  orthodox  belief  and 
its  Biblical  God,  not  to  assail,  but  to  question ; 
not  to  prove,  but  to  think;  not  proud  of  un- 
belief, but  humble  in  lack  of  knowledge. 

At  the  outset  I  say  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  our  welfare  that  we  behold  the  browed  vis- 
age of  God,  much  as  we  yearn  to  do  so.  He 
is  not  for  our  eyes,  for  if  He  were  to  be  beheld 
we  should  see  Him  every  day. 

As  it  is  the  profession  of  religion  to  custody 
our  spiritual  welfare,  it  behooves  us  to  look 
into  those  teachings  for  which,  from  the  priest- 
ly past,  its  altars  have  been  lit  for  us.    Assum- 


ing  all  religions  as  purportly  the  same ;  that  is, 
affecting  to  educate  our  souls  to  the  end  that 
we,  through  immortality,  enter  a  place  de- 
signed for  us  by  our  Creator,  we  may  unblas- 
phemously  question  by  what  right  we  are  so 
taught ;  nay,  so  commanded. 

Men  are  more  ready  to  have  faith  in  great 
wonders  than  in  little  things;  and  they  who 
will  not  purchase  a  coin's  worth  of  food  with- 
out skepticism  will  accept  as  truth  that  which 
no  one  in  their  generation  or  memory  has  be- 
held. Even  were  the  Bible  in  every  statement 
true,  it  is  our  right — I  shall  say  our  duty — not 
to  believe,  but  to  find  it  true.  God's  dignity 
does  not  extend  to  render  inviolable  every 
statement  made  concerning  Him. 

Now,  knowing  that  men  are  liars  and  espe- 
cially are  they  untruthful  in  the  Orient,  where 
opened  the  first  slaughterous  chapters  in  the 
religious  romance,  and  especially  were  they 
ignorant  and  frightened  in  those  religion-mak- 
ing centuries,  it  should  not  seem  unworthy 
our  piety,  as  it  befits  our  self-respect,  that  we 
question  that  which  has  come  to  us  from  those 
untruthful  climes  and  wonderous  times. 

For  this  purpose,  then  (perhaps  in  a  spirit 
that  seems  audacious  to  the  priest  and  timid 
to  the  thinker),  let  religion  be  as  a  quantity 
of  ore  that  goes  to  the  assayer.  Let  it  not  be 
assumed  on  the  assurance  of  the  prospector, 
wise  though  he  be.  Let  it  not  rest  upon  the 
appraise  of  an  unauthenticated  lip.  Take  it 
into  the  room  of  weights  and  arithmetic,  a 
room  which  honor  need  not  fear.    If  it  is  gold 


it  will  stand  the  test.  I  shall  not  claim  that 
the  microscope  can  disprove  religion  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  you  will  not  claim  that  it  cannot. 
My  purpose  is  not  to  discredit,  but  to  observe 
how  the  subject  matter  of  belief  will  act  when 
brought  into  contact  with  the  ordinary  solu- 
tions for  ascertaining  the  truth. 

Therefore,  divide  the  subject  into  three 
parts : 

1.  As  to  the  Bible. 

2.  As  to  God. 

3.  As  to  the  soul. 

Whoever  credits  all  the  Bible  has  not  read 
it  all.  Before  believing  we  should  understand ; 
and  we  are  just  beginning  to  understand  the 
Scriptures.  Once  we  had  faith  in  its  unintel- 
ligibility.  We  may  now  pause  before  that 
blood-stained  book  and  ask  whether  the  hor- 
rors it  recounted  and  the  glories  it  promised 
are  still  appareled  in  the  divinity  which  en- 
chanted our  fathers  and  made  the  sounds  of 
.death  and  war  heaven-directed  music. 

The  authors  of  the  Scriptures,  having,  in 
accordance  with  their  times,  but  small  resource 
of  spiritual  or  sentimental  words,  exposed  theit 
emotions  in  language  of  the  flesh.  Perhaps 
in  their  vernacular  they  had  ways  of  distin- 
guishing between  the  psychic  and  the  physical 
meaning.  We  can  only  interpret  them  now 
by  distant  reasoning.  In  Ezekiel  is  the  pas- 
sage: "And  he  said  unto  me.  Son  of  man, 
cause  thy  belly  to  eat  and  fill  thy  bowels  with 
this  roll  that  I  give  to  thee.     Then  did  I  eat 


it ;  and  it  was  in  my  mouth  as  honey  for  sweet- 
ness." 

That  reads  like  the  usual  digestive  facts; 
but  the  passage  means,  Listen  to  that  which 
I  tell  thee.  Then  I  listened  to  his  words, 
which  were  pleasant  to  my  understanding. 

There  is  the  same  symbolism  of  eating  spir- 
itual grace  in  the  eucharist. 

When  Jesus  drove  the  dealers  and  changers 
from  the  temple,  the  bystanders  asked  Him 
for  some  sign  of  His  authority.  And  Jesus 
said,  "Destroy  this  temple  and  in  three  days 
will  I  raise  it  up.  Even  they,  who  should  have 
been  familiar  with  his  language,  did  not  un- 
derstand what  John  declares  to  be  the  mean- 
ing; to  wit:  that  He  meant  the  temple  of  His 
body. 

The  star  of  Bethlehem  was  the  knowledge 
that  was  beginning  to  form  in  the  minds  of 
the  three  wise  men,  who  represent  the  think- 
ers of  the  world.  For  of  such  was  their  system 
of  literature. 

Expounding  for  ourselves  this  beautiful  but 
inaccurate  language,  their  whole  pellucid 
fabric  of  Heaven,  Hell  and  immortality  may 
have  been  allegoric  terms.  And  we  do  not 
know  how  far  their  sublime  thoughts  were 
corruptible  with  such  interpretation. 

*T  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life"  means, 
The  truth  that  I  speak  will  free  you  from 
error. 

"He  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live,"  has  the  same  mean- 
ing, "dead"  meaning  "spiritually  stupid,"  as 


the  first  "dead"  in  "Let  the  dead  bury  their 
dead." 

The  truth  is  seldom  given  in  the  virgin  gold. 
We  learn  to  separate  it  from  the  rock. 

Similar  reasoning  is  put  upon  the  episode 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  For  it  is  hard  to  be- 
lieve that  upon  a  young,  inexperienced,  un- 
mothered,  untaught,  bewildered  child  of  sud- 
denness, as  Eve  was,  with  no  knowledge  of 
right  and  wrong,  should  devolve  the  happiness 
of  the  human  race.  And  however  we  revere 
the  authors  of  the  Scriptures  and  believe  in 
their  sincerity  while  aware  of  their  treacher- 
ous literary  style,  we  would  like  better  proof 
than  their  faith,  purer  evidence  than  their 
symbolism,  more  definite  answers  than  their 
poetry,  before  we  believe  in  the  miraculous 
authority  that  seems  infringement  upon  what 
may  be  the  immutable  laws  of  nature. 

In  the  Old  Testament,  the  usual  occurrences 
of  life,  such  as  child-conception,  growth  of 
crops,  success  in  battle,  are  made  to  appear  as 
the  deliberate  and  special  act  of  Jehovah.  Per- 
haps the  authors  innocently  considered  their 
thoughts  and  dreams  as  likewise  inspired. 
Whether  they  had  some  grounds  for  such  at- 
tributions of  divine  interference  or  these  were 
mere  pious  exclamations,  we  can  never  know 
until  we  hear  from  the  patriarchs  or  Jehovah 
again. 

If,  as  Moses  and  Peter  say,  a  thousand  years 
can  be  as  one  day  with  the  Lord,  it  is  but  a 
few  days  since  the  age  of  miracles,  and  there 
is  no  wisdom  in  calling  this  a  profane  epoch. 


Besides  that,  some  of  the  Old  Testamentary 
authors,  and,  I  daresay,  the  most  solid  and 
profound  thinkers  therein,  living  in  the  miracu- 
lous periods,  mention  nothing  of  those  exorbi- 
tant performances,  and  seemingly  never  be- 
held anything  unlawful  or  disorderly  in  the 
natural  appearances  about  them.  But  they 
who,  like  Ezekiel,  wandered  in  the  phantas- 
magoric landscapes  of  their  own  imaginations, 
could  meet  a  miracle  at  every  tree. 

What  is  a  miracle?  An  action  at  variance 
with  the  laws  of  nature.  But  the  laws  of  na- 
ture contain  complete  ingredients  for  their 
own  defeat.  He  who  understands  can  turn 
them  to  his  purpose.  It  is  not  for  all  to  say 
what  is  miracle  and  what  natural.  All 
miracles  may  be  natural.  Some  day  every 
man  will  stand  in  the  den  of  lions  unharmed 
and  walk  upon  the  waves,  with  the  same  power 
as  now  he  uses  a  finer  light  and  gazes  among 
his  own  bones.  Science  is  the  knowledge  of 
God  through  study.  Who  can  say  what  was 
known  of  old? 

The  fact,  however,  that  many  of  the  myths 
in  the  Bible  are  paralleled  in  the  mythology 
of  other  races  is  not  to  be  taken  against  them, 
as  is  done  by  some  commentators.  The  stories 
of  Adam  and  Eve  and  the  flood,  for  instances, 
have  counterparts  in  many  alien  folk-lores. 
This,  for  its  universality,  and  with  excuses  for 
racial  deviation,  is  more  of  an  evidence  of 
their  truth  than  fiction. 

Leaving  the  Bible,  we  come  to  God,  and, 
unterrified  by  terrestrial     teachers,     question 


lO 


ourselves  of  Him  in  whose  image  we  are  made. 
These  questions  are: 

1.  Of  what  does  He  consist? 

2.  Does  He  ever,  to  answer  a  prayer,  per- 
form a  miracle? 

3.  How  many  Gods  are  there? 

I  shall  notice  the  last  question  first,  as,  per- 
haps, it  is  the  most  conspicuous  and  holds  the 
attention. 

Here  it  is  asked,  What  idea,  what  fact  in 
Nature,  what  argument  brought  to  prove  the 
existence  of  God,  is  evidence  of  an  only  God? 

Having  believed  so  long  in  a  monarchical 
Heaven,  it  may  be  hard  to  change  our  belief 
now.  But  if  ever  we  shall  be  blest  with  sights 
unknown  to  our  mundane  eyes,  there  will  be 
many  surprises  for  us. 

Unity,  or  oneness,  as  we  know  it,  is  not  pro- 
ductive in  Nature;  every  atom,  every  seed  of 
plant  or  animal,  every  chemic  movement,  force 
of  Nature,  storm,  planetary  attraction  or  sys- 
tem of  worlds,  has  some  kind  of  duality  or 
counter-influence  to  which  it  owes  its  stability 
and  existence.  If  we  are  made  in  the  divine 
image  (as  vitally  every  living  thing  is  in  the 
same  image)  why  imagine  the  Father  of  All 
a  being  of  sublime  loneliness?  Does  He  regu- 
late Nature  or  is  He  Nature?  If  the  latter,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  Nature  is  double 
and  the  participation  is  generally  of  two  dis- 
tinct forces ;  there  being,  though,  hemaphro- 
ditic  conditions  in  vegetation. 

If  God  is  the  universe,  then  His  duality  is 
implicate,  or  within  itself,  a  state  of  being  im- 


aginable  in  spirit.  But  if,  for  the  purposes 
of  Christ's  incarnation,  He  obeyed  a  law  of 
earth,  it  is  not  inconceivable  nor  repugnant 
that  He  once  obeyed  spiritually  a  similar  law 
of  Heaven,  where  He  knew  the  harmony  of 
an  Equal,  who  could  approach  Him  with  ade- 
quate understanding. 

The  fact  that  the  early  Scriptures  acknowl- 
edge other  but  less  influential  Gods  is  not  to 
the  purpose  of  this  speculation;  it  merely  be- 
traying that  the  Bible  is  a  lay  record  and,  like 
this,  inconsistent  with  itself.  Those  who  de- 
sired to  impress  their  selfish  acts  with  divine 
sanction  were  divine  traducers,  and  the  char- 
acter of  God,  as  pretended  in  their  boastful- 
ness  (even  in  the  selfish,  egotistic  David)  is 
as  far  from  the  God  of  their  better  moods  as 
the  character  of  Christ,  in  the  New  Testament, 
is  unlike  Jehovah  in  the  Old. 

The  deeds  of  Jehovah  in  the  Old  Testament 
are  not  pictures  or  demonstrations  of  His  man- 
given  attributes.  The  narrators,  in  their  fail- 
ure to  make  His  actions  live  up  to  their  flat- 
tery, were  like  some  story-writers,  who  give 
their  characters  intellectual  parts  which  are 
not  manifested  in  the  story.  In  fact,  all  people 
praise  their  God  for  mercy,  justice  and  love, 
yet  their  recordings  of  divine  manifestation 
are  filled  with  cruelty,  slaughter,  vanity,  re- 
venge and  irritableness. 

Of  what  Godhood  consists,  I,  unlike  those 
who,  having  seen  Him  by  the  River  of  Chebar 
or  in  Heaven's  thunder  and  lightning  and 
speak  of  Him  in  devastated  obscurity,  can  but 


^^  drop  the  futile  pen  in  ignorance.  He  lives  in 
His  thoughts,  and  this  all  article  is  a  thought 
of  Him. 

Whether  or  not  the  Infinite  and  Eternal 
hearkens  to  our  prayers  is  a  question  awaiting 
proof.  Having  here  a  v^orld  of  about  a  billion 
characters  and  perhaps  a  billion  other  worlds, 
to  which  probably  He  has  given  laws  that 
lead  to  happiness  when  obeyed  by  all,  it  is 
hardly  reasonable  that  He  listens  to  the  selfish 
wails  of  distress  continually  escaping  from 
these  habitations  of  sin.  Misfortune  is  the 
sinning  of  the  individual  or  the  race,  and  the 
reform  of  the  race  is  the  prayer  that  helps. 

A  personal  God's  omniscience  of  even  one 
worldful  of  prayer  at  a  time  is  incomprehen- 
sible to  me  and  to  you.  Do  not  think  that 
God,  because  He  is  all  powerful,  can  do  and 
does  do  all  that  you  do  not  understand.  Prayer 
is  doing,  and  doing  is  understanding.  A  prayer 
for  mercy  and  forgiveness  feels  powerful  to 
move  the  heart  of  God.  But  do  not  try  to  move 
■  God's  heart  until  you  have  first  moved  your 
own.  When  your  own  heart  is  perfect,  other 
perfections  will  move  harmoniously  about  it. 

Tell  me  and  I  shall  know,  is  your  prayer. 
But  if  you  doubt  always,  when  will  you  know? 
Doubt  and  die,  and  others  will  know  with  your 
death.  We  are  small  in  body  but  large  in 
mind.  Contrary  to  our  sights  of  space,  the 
material  universe  may  be  as  a  solid.  The 
sky's  flames,  revolving  in  their  places,  may 
have  the  same  relative  distances  as  in  the  hu- 
man   body    the    molecules  have  one  to    the 


other.  And  our  limbed  bodies,  the  makers  of  ^3 
war  and  glory,  the  shouters  of  triumph,  the 
wearers  of  wreaths,  may  be  in  God's  estima- 
tion nameless  things  upon  a  floating  molecule, 
eagerly  questioning  the  ones  at  the  telescopes 
their  opinions  of  the  surrounding  corpuscles 
pumped  from  the  one  great  heart  of  things. 
Such  is  body.  But  mind  goes  wherever  in- 
finity is. 

Some  day,  here  on  this  despised  earth,  we 
shall  see  God,  not  with  the  color  of  our  eyes, 
but  with  the  understanding.  Some  day  we 
shall  speak  to  Him  and  receive  a  present  re- 
sponse, an  immediate  revelation.  It  may  not 
be  in  our  alphabetic  language;  it  may  not  be 
on  the  sensitiveness  of  the  five;  but  we  shall 
know  Him.  And  we  could  have  known  Him 
long  ago  had  we  tried  as  hard  to  see  Him  as 
we  try  to  know  the  Devil.  Satan,  or  Error, 
is  visible  in  the  day.  Death,  disease,  old  age, 
conflict,  falsity,  the  flesh ;  these  are  evil  and 
error.  Life,  health,  unchangeable  perfection, 
love,  truth,  mind  and  infinity;  these  are  God. 
There  is  one  God,  because  there  is  one  infinity. 
And  even  did  two  Gods  think  themselves  two, 
still  are  they  one.  Even  as  there  is  one  mind 
which  we  all  use  for  thought  as  we  use  one 
atmosphere.  The  soul  is  not  imprisoned  in  the 
body.  Matter  cannot  imprison  spirit.  But 
these  multitudinous  bodies  walk  in  one  soul. 

A  box  of  apples  is  in  a  sense  not  apples  but 
apple,  although  they  seem  to  be  many  and 
each  spherical.  The  apples  on  all  the  trees 
in  the  world  are  merely  manifestation  of  the 


14  Apple  Idea  which  is  one.  So  is  the  Idea  of 
human  beings  one  and  their  multifid  differ- 
ences the  deviations  of  error.  The  eye  says 
we  are  many;  but  the  eye  is  material  and  not 
the  sense  nor  the  principle  of  sight  nor  yet  the 
last  phenomenon  by  which  impressions  are 
conveyed  to  the  mind. 

The  five  senses  are  gradually  refined  mani- 
festations of  one  principle.  Feeling  requires 
contact.  Taste  performs  a  second  thought 
upon  this  contact.  Smell  tastes  the  distant 
object.  Hearing  feels  an  indescribable  change 
in  phenomena  that  can  be  more  distant.  And 
sight  makes  the  object  appear.  Each  sense 
has  five  considerations  to  itself.  In  sight:  the 
object  seen;  the  eye;  its  mere  cameric  work- 
ings (including  light)  ;  the  medium  with  which 
the  image  is  connected  on  the  mind ;  and  lastly 
the  mind  itself.  Reverse  the  course  of  an  im- 
pression through  the  weird  mazes  between  the 
object  and  the  mind,  and  it  might  be  that  the 
apparent  order  of  things  is  a  mistake.  Ob- 
jects can  be  seen  inverted  vertically  as  in  the 
concavity  of  a  spoon ;  perhaps  horizontaly, 
too,  they  suffer  inversion,  and  sight  works 
not  from  the  object  to  the  mind,  but  from  the 
mind  to  the  object,  making  mind  the  only  real 
existence  of  us.  For  as  the  mind  can  work 
without  sight,  so  might  the  principle  of  sight 
work  without  material  objects,  as  in  dreams, 
and  consequently  all  earthly  furniture  be  the 
labors  of  an  unbodied  mind. 

The  picture  that  the  eye  gets  is  anyway  not 
what  the  mind  sees.    For  the  images  of  every- 


thing,  diminutive  and  great — an  insect,  a  15 
horse,  a  house,  a  mountain,  a  landscape,  the 
skies,  all  go  through  the  little  dark  pupil  of 
the  eye  and  are  received  on  the  one  tiny  retina. 
In  a  camera  these  impressions  are  about  the 
same  size ;  a  landscape  looks  like  a  few  square 
inches.  Why  does  the  mind  make  a  larger 
view  of  the  miniature  lensed  in  the  eye?  If  it  is 
the  eye  that  takes  the  picture,  how  does  it  take 
it  so  large?  If  sight  is  a  radiation  from  with- 
in we  can  understand  its  pictures  enlarging 
until  they  stop,  at  a  certain  distance,  a  certain 
size.  Even  perspective  does  not  tell  us  how 
small  are  things  in  the  eye.  It  seems  that 
everything  is  magnified  and  magicked  and  un- 
real— our  bodies  included. 

The  contemplation  now  comes  to  the  soul 
of  man. 

The  existence  of  the  orthodox  God  does  not 
prove  the  existence  of  an  individual  human 
soul.  It  merely  gives  rise  to  the  questions, 
Having  caused  us  to  live,  would  He  be  so  cruel 
as  to  let  us  die?  Are  life  and  thought  a  little 
warmth  generated  by  the  frictions  of  the 
blood?  Is  the  brain  a  magnetic  sponge  that 
attracts  thought  or  soul  from  the  circum- 
jacence?  Or  is  the  soul  an  inner  shape?  Or 
are  we  all  spirit  and  our  bodies  the  shape  of 
our  thoughts? 

The  usual  proofs  of  immortality  are  so  in- 
adequate, so  childish,  piteous,  weak  and  dis- 
heartening that  they  show  to  what  a  sharp 
little  thorn  we  will  cling  in  order  to  smell  at 
a  rose. 


i6  One  of  the  lessons  brought  to  our  attention 

by  men  who  stand  ostensibly  before  the  world, 
and  ostentatiously  before  God,  as  great  think- 
ers, is  the  spectacle  of  a  flower  shrinking  on 
the  stem,  withering  and  dropping  the  seeds 
from  which  will  rise  another  lily.  Artless 
hope !  A  new  flower  unfolds,  but  where  is  the 
old  one?  Rotting  in  the  soil  to  nourish  the 
next  tenant  of  the  clod.  The  same  perform- 
ance goes  on  with  human  beings,  save  that  we 
do  not  die  to  drop  our  seed.  Yet  here  it  must 
be  remembered  that  it  is  not  the  blossom  but 
the  bush  that  is  the  individual,  the  person. 
The  flower  is  but  a  beautiful  manifestation  of 
the  sexual  parts  of  the  bush.  Is  your  father 
immortal  because  you  live  when  he  is  dead? 
Is  the  oak  tree,  sculptured  into  furniture,  an 
immortal  oak  because  its  acorn  sprouts  again? 
Poor  child  of  death,  no.  The  immortality  is 
not  in  the  tree,  but  in  the  oak  idea.  Who  or 
what  is  that  idea? 

Another  analogy  of  which  we  hear  is  of  the 
sun,  as  that :  At  night  the  orb  of  day  sets  with 
gloom,  and  darkness  is  over  the  world,  but  on 
the  morrow  its  immortal  light  again  breaks 
forth  to  gladden  us. .  This,  although  a  more 
splendid  illustration,  is  more  easily  refuted. 
The  sun  does  not  set  nor  is  it  ever  in  dark- 
ness. It  is  always  bright  in  its  own  beams. 
When  we  have  night,  the  solar  blaze  is  still 
making  day  on  the  other  side  of  our  world 
and  on  other  worlds.  The  phenomenon  of 
night  and  day  is  not  more  proof  of  immortality 
than  is  the  turning  of  our  heads  from  a  bright 
object  and  looking  back  again. 


There  may  be  eternity  in  mankind,  but  it  is        ^7 
probably  in  the  human  race  as  a  life-produc- 
ing colony,  not  in  the  integer  man.     Man  is 
immortal,  but,  as  yet,  not  each  man. 

There  is  in  us  a  yearning  for  a  deathless 
career.  That  this  ecstacy  has  been  used  as 
proof  of  its  own  ultimate  fulfillment  is  one  of 
the  many  cajoleries  to  which  human  nature 
has  subjected  itself. 

Even  one  of  most  atheistic  perversion  must 
admit  that  our  temperaments  are  finely  bal- 
anced, too  finely  sometimes  for  stability.  Our 
emotions  nullify  one  another,  as  if  Some  One 
had  studied  them  to  be  just  so.  This  suggests 
a  careful  Creator,  but  does  not  ensure  a  per- 
petual soul.  We  are  deluded  by  error  at  every 
turn ;  for  what  if  any  purpose  we  do  not  know. 
One  of  the  most  fascinating  of  emotions  is 
that  alternate  passion  and  depression,  faith  and 
jealousy,  vivacity  and  dejection,  fervor  and 
dullness,  namely,  the  so-called  divine  senti- 
ment that  exists  between  man  and  woman. 
Yet  apparently  that  sentiment  is  a  servant  to 
the  physical  consummation  that  is  all  the  while 
surreptitiously  repeopling  the  earth  while  oth- 
ers are  dying. 

And,  as  love  serves  this  purpose  until  we 
lose  our  beauty  and  have  no  use  for  the  world, 
and  it  none  for  us,  so  may  the  emotion  of  hope 
be  put  among  our  others  with  equal  cunning 
and  for  no  further  divinity.  Hope  leads  us  to 
effort  as  a  tightly-wrapped  prize  hung  up  for 
competition.  But,  as  love  is  useful  only  to  the 
youthful,  perhaps  hope  is  only  for  the  living. 


1 8  While  we  live,  hope  serves  its  purpose.  When 
we  shall  be  dead,  we  shall  have  no  compre- 
hension of  things  and  it  will  matter  not  how 
we  have  been  seduced  into  religion,  nor  how 
long  we  shall  be  dead ;  for  we  shall  not  know. 
Has  God  deceived  us?  No;  we  deceive  our- 
selves. 

Many  people  have  died  surrounded  by  the 
living;  yet  of  these  there  have  been  few  seen 
departings  of  any  Heaven-fated  spirit  they 
might  have  had.  This  is  not  proof  there  were 
none.  For  our  eyes  may  be  of  too  coarse  in- 
strumental power  to  behold  the  mid-heaven 
cherished  by  the  living  bosom.  Or  the  fault 
may  be  in  the  condition  of  the  light,  it  being 
unfavorable  to  observance.  That  is  possible 
in  view  of  recent  discoveries  in  light  and  in- 
gredients of  light. 

We  have  solemn  accounts  of  ghosts  in  war- 
like accoutrements  and  apparel.  A  ghost 
should  be  nude.  Metal  and  woven  fabrics 
have  no  phantoms  unless  they  are  phantoms 
at  all  times.  We  can  even  go  beyond  that  and 
declare  that  this  soul,  this  earthless  ward  of  an 
earthly  church,  has  not  necessarily  a  human 
form.  Our  body  is  the  medium  of  the  organs 
within,  a  system  of  conduits  for  the  use  of 
our  carnal  appetites  and  the  economy  and 
wastes  thereof.  These,  I  take  it,  are  not  char- 
acteristic of  the  spirit.  Should  the  soul  have 
no  stomach,  bowels,  lungs,  heart,  blood,  etc., 
it  need  not  possess  the  shape  that  compactly 
carries  this  apparatus. 

If  each  of  us  has  an  immortal  soul  why  is 


not  that  possession  self-evident?  If  life  is  a  ^9 
thoughtful  spirit  why  does  it  not  know  of  its 
own  existence  or  regard  the  presence  of  the 
flesh  as  foreign  matter?  Why  has  it  any  ap- 
prehension that  this  soft-moving  statue  of  vis- 
ible complexion  will  some  day  perish  miser- 
ably and  drag  down  all  thought  into  eternal 
death?  If  the  brain  is  not  the  mind,  it  is  so 
vitally  related  to  it  that  we  fear  the  soul  could 
not  think  without  it  and  its  blood-flames  of 
life. 

If  the  soul  does  not  know  itself  from  the 
body,  will  its  emancipation  bring  further 
knowledge?  Or,  is  emancipation,  under  such 
conditions,  possible?  To  say  that  the  spirit 
freed  from  its  corporeal  partnership  will  have 
its  own  mental  equipments  is  to  say  that  the 
part  is  more  mental  than  the  whole ;  that  flesh 
is  a  stupefaction,  and  that  knowledge  will  rise 
from  the  corpse. 

Then,  again,  as  to  the  senses;  are  they  at- 
tainments of  the  flesh,  and  the  freed  phantom 
without  use  of  them?  In  such  disadvantage- 
ous condition,  the  soul  would  be  a  mere  life 
principle  and  without  employment  unless  it 
have  new  harmonies  of  its  own.  It  might  no 
longer  hear  music  but  be  music. 

The  existence  of  a  soul  does  not  require  a 
postmortem  Heaven.  An  angelic  reservation 
of  this  sort  would  be  contrary  to  the  economy 
of  things  as  we  know  them.  That  an  amor- 
phous spirit  should  occupy  paradisial  space 
forever  as  a  reward  for  the  few  days'  ques- 
tionable virtue  while  sojourning  here,  or  that 


20  it  should  suffer  torment  for  the  sins  of  a  will- 
ful flesh-material  that  allegedly  is  no  part  of 
itself,  is  a  thought  that  Nature  does  not  ex- 
press nor  Authority  expound.  The  orthodox 
Heaven  is  a  lazy,  jejune,  sexlessly  lascivious 
place.  And  God  has  not  to  our  eyes  yet  shown 
a  spot  of  laziness  in  Nature. 

It  might  be  that  this  Vatican  within  our 
Avorthless  bones  creates  its  own  Heaven  and 
Hell  as  a  kind  of  dream  after  death.  That 
there  is  life  and  thought  in  the  brain  after  the 
heart  has  stopped  and  the  breath  gone  and  the 
body  cold  is  possible.  The  brain  would  not 
need  more  than  a  very  little  stagnant  blood 
to  do  a  little  thinking.  The  very  act  of  de- 
composition might  cause  a  real  mental  action 
in  the  brain.  Whatever  has  been  the  habit  of 
thought  or  conscience  of  the  individual  would 
surround  itself  with  adequate  visions. 

There  are  two  other  futures  for  the  separate 
man  that  may  rescue  him  from  loathed  mor- 
tality. 

The  first  is  in  the  possibility  of  acquiring 
such  a  knowledge  of  ourselves  that  accidents 
will  mar  and  not  kill,  disease  will  be  readily 
cured,  and  old  age  unaccompanied  by  physical 
defect,  temporary  death  by  violence  a  matter 
of  resuscitation,  the  laws  of  reproduction  be 
controlled,  or  the  spaces  of  the  air  and  perhaps 
other  planets  be  occupied;  or  appropriating 
a  more  spiritual  mind,  we  may  solve  the  illu- 
sion of  the  flesh  and  understand  that  matter 
has  no  sensation  in  itself  and  that  reproduc- 
tion of  beings  is  a  useless  multiplication  of  at- 


tention  and  therefore  a  constantly  moving 
dividend  of  love. 

The  second  hope  is  not  a  spiritual  one.  It 
is  on  the  theory  that  we  are  material  and  mat- 
ter is  indestructible.  If  consciousness  be  made 
of  indestructible  stuff,  the  flesh  could  suffer 
death  and  its  atoms  continue  wherever  they 
are  cast,  until  opportunity,  through  vegeta- 
tion and  so  forth,  brings  one  of  them  into  the 
molecule  impregnated  upon  a  future  parent. 

For  instance,  assume  imperishable  pieces,  or 
atoms,  of  consciousness ;  the  owner  dies ;  these 
atoms  cease  thought,  not  being  assisted  by  the 
blood;  but  they  remain  unchanged,  awaiting 
such  assistance.  Whatever  becomes  of  these 
atoms — if  hundreds  of  years  afterwards  they 
become  a  part  of  the  soil  or  atmosphere  and  are 
taken  up  in  vegetation — they  may  enter  into 
any  living  creature  and  eventually  man.  But 
this  is  a  hazardous  journey,  and  in  any  stage 
they  may  be  expelled  from  the  body  in  the 
course  of  its  animal  functions.  Even  should 
some  almost  reach  the  goal  by  getting  into  the 
human  blood,  there  is  very  small  chance  of  one 
particular  atom  uniting  at  the  proper  time  and 
place  with  other  atoms  in  fertilizing  new  life. 
Then  too  is  the  likelihood  of  that  atom  becom- 
ing part  of  a  plant  or  beast,  and  the  theory  of 
reincarnation  suggests  itself.  This  human 
atom  might  be  unable  to  think  until  properly 
stationed  in  its  own  environment  or  it  may  in- 
fluence life  wherever  its  destiny  runs,  and  thus 
leaven  the  whole  lump.  The  brain  might  be 
myriads  of  such  atoms,  and,  of  all  who  have 


21 


22  died,  there  would  always  be  many  in  readiness 
for  another  human  being.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence of  an  atom  carrying  a  memory 
of  its  former  habitat.  But  we  are  content  in 
finding  ourselves  alive  without  such  memory. 

However,  we  must  have  been  at  some  time 
some  other  form  of  life,  or  many  forms,  animal 
and  vegetable,  which  nourished  our  fathers' 
loins  and  feed  us  now;  although  our  memory 
does  not  go  back  into  the  thoughts  of  these 
animals.  Yet  if  we  had  to  depend  on  our  own 
memory  we  would  not  know  the  manner  of 
our  birth.  Not  even  does  memory  go  into  the 
first  year  of  our  lives,  when  there  is  a  com- 
plete but  uneducated  human  being  to  bear  a 
consciousness  into  maturity. 

Arises  the  question.  Would  it  not  be  possi- 
ble for  many  lives  to  spread  from  one  man; 
that  is,  in  time  there  be  many  Julius  Caesars, 
even  living  at  the  one  time?  So  it  would  seem. 
For  who  denies  that  in  a  way  all  men  are 
brothers  and  very  much  alike? 

We  are  of  the  earth,  and  man  gradually  as- 
similates the  eatable  beasts  and  vegetables 
about  him.  All  of  us,  plant,  beast  and  man, 
cultivate  the  thin  upper  turf,  and,  in  time,  the 
same  material  earth  is  used  over  and  again. 
We  should  be  buried  in  the  wheat-field,  not  in 
grave-yards.  Perhaps  this  is  a  base  kind  of 
immortality,  after  all  our  dreams,  but  immor- 
tality it  is.  Written  history  becomes  the  pres- 
ervation of  intellect  and  by  our  efforts  we  can 
make  our  world  more  pleasant  for  that  time 
when  we  shall  appear  in  it  again. 


So  many  religions  have  been  given  to  us!  23 
But  we  can  demur  that  to  the  living  they 
neither  offer  anything  new  nor  explain  the  old. 
As  far  as  we  know,  religious  duties  are  a  wor- 
ship at  the  shrine  of  an  interrogation  point. 
Nations  glitter  and  fade  like  trees  between 
summer  and  autumn;  religions  flourish  and 
fall  with  them  as  if  they  were  sustained  by 
temporal  power ;  and  gods  die  for  lack  of  wor- 
shippers. 

Whereupon  comes  to  us  the  thought  of  the 
pleasant  relations  boasted  of  by  the  ancients; 
comes  the  misgiving,  My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  Thou  forsaken  me?  Is  God  alive  and 
able  to  communicate  with  us  or  are  we  drop- 
ping through  space  on  a  spent  world,  dancing 
in  our  bright  garments  in  an  eve  before  Wat- 
erloo? 

For  explanation  we  must  trust  to  science  or 
to  death.  We  may  some  time  solve  the  situa- 
tion; but  in  our  present  state,  science  is  like 
a  wanton  boy  peeping  under  the  robe  of 
Mother  Nature.  We  do  not  understand  the 
mature  mysteries  of  her  love  and  hate. 

The  human  race  follows  science  grudgingly ; 
if  it  ever  tells  us  what  we  are,  the  knowledge 
may  come  so  gradually  that  it  will  not  be  ap- 
preciated by  those  alive  at  the  time.  It,  like 
other  discoveries,  will  be  taken  as  a  matter  of 
course  and  the  world  remain  as  selfish.  The 
human  race  did  not  carry  with  it  a  traditional 
account  of  its  development  from  the  beast ;  and 
if  it  ever  achieves  evolution  to  something  bet- 
ter than  the  present,  there  will  very  likely  be 


24  nothing  left  but  a  little  internal  evidence  to 
prove  the  change. 

Man  was  not  created  from  the  dust  with  a 
word,  even  as  he  is  not  now  born  full-grown. 
Thought  created  for  itself  its  dust  and  worked 
up  from  that  dust  through  beasthood  into 
man.  The  manhead  was  a  lesson  a  long  time 
in  learning.  Darwin  says  that  the  love  affairs 
of  the  brute  caused  evolution.  But  the  sexual 
selection  was  the  material  part  of  it;  vanity, 
thought,  mind,  spirit,  the  power  to  evolve, 
made  the  change.  Sexual  selection  was  the 
use  of  that  power.  God,  or  nature,  or  exist- 
ence, being  once  less  than  man,  looked  up, 
and  there  was  light ;  and  man  was  made  in  the 
image  of  the  brute. 

Creation  was  a  gradual  thought ;  so  too  evo- 
lution ;  but  not  necessarily  a  good  thought.  It 
might  have  been  spirit's  forgetting  of  spiritu- 
ality in  pursuance  and  curiosity  of  creative 
thought.  The  law  of  compensation  is  terrify- 
ing. Perhaps  to  attain  Heaven  we  must  re- 
trace the  steps  of  evolution.  Our  greatest  vic- 
tories in  the  field  of  immortal  truth  might 
from  now  on  be  at  the  expense  of  mortal 
wounds.  In  the  discovery  of  the  principle  of 
life  might  come  the  revelation  that  it  is  death ; 
life  being  the  accumulation  of  a  poison;  that 
poison  being  necessary  to  the  action  of  the 
heart.  Our  beliefs  will  undergo  great  revolu- 
tions, and  other  Christs  will  walk  on  other 
waters  before  the  strife  is  ended.  Grief  is  sel- 
fish.   Upon  a  loss  we  mourn  lest  we  be  unable 


to  enjoy  the  future.     Children,  we  should  be        25 
grateful  for  what  we  have  had. 

In  trying  to  understand  God  we  should  look 
into  ourselves  rather  than  the  hidden  places 
among  the  stars,  where,  perhaps,  other  worlds 
are  telescoping  for  Him. 

When  we  have  thought  other  thoughts, 
comes  the  conception  that  all  we  see  is  unreal ; 
that  all  is  infinite  mind ;  that  matter  is  falsity ; 
flesh  a  belief ;  and  feeling  an  error. 

Thinking  of  God  when  He  said.  Let  there 
be  light,  who,  including  even  God  Himself, 
can  declare  that  what  He  saw  was  not  merely 
the  reflex  of  an  omnipotent  imagination,  and 
that  we,  the  many  reproductions  of  His  mind 
do  not  but  still  see  that  fancied  sun  which  in- 
finity made  appear  from  within  Himself? 

It  is  hard  to  consider  the  world  as  made  up 
of  two  elements,  matter  and  spirit.  To  many, 
spirit  is  merely  etherealized  matter;  but  such 
ideas  are  lack  of  fancy.  Either  we  are  all  ma- 
terial or  all  spirit.  Flesh  could  not  act  upon 
mind  nor  mind  on  flesh  unless  one  were  the 
product  of  the  other.  If  mind  is  produced  of 
matter,  it  is  a  little  heat  generated  by  the 
workings  of  the  living  body.  If  matter  is  the 
offspring  of  mind,  it  is  a  fiction,  a  phantasma 
or  belief,  and  all  our  woes  are  errors  of 
thought  and  not  material.  Then  God  is  a 
truth  to  be  lived  and  not  an  enthroned  spirit 
to  be  seen  or  worshipped.  God,  ourselves! 
matter  a  dream !  By  selfishness  and  carnal 
transactions  we  nourish  and  solidify  the  false- 
hood that  claims  to  be  body  and  have  sensa- 


26  tion.  By  wisdom  and  purity  we  dissolve  it 
and  undo  the  illusions  which  we  once  called 
physical  pleasure ;  through  understanding,  dis- 
burden ourselves  of  the  fleshy  incumbrance, 
proving  the  truth  as  we  go  along,  finding 
death  a  result  of  sin,  all  belief  and  indulgence 
in  matter  being  sinful  to  the  spirit,  and  thus 
may  we  achieve  immortality  without  entering 
the  tomb. 


27 


THE  SHROUD  OF  THE  LIVING 


I  walked  across  the  landscape  of  the  world, 
Whose  fragrant  hills  and  furnishings  of  flowers, 
And  rivers  tortuous,  and  branches  curled, 
Were  spaciously  established  there  in  bowers. 
I  walked  the  path  of  graves  and  read  the  stones 
Cut  to  commemorate  the  mindless  dead 
And  advertise  the  virtue  of  those  bones, 
Whose  vanity  in  death  still  raised  its  head. 
Death  decorated  seemed  no  whit  less  fair, 
With  weeping  sculptury  and  many  a  grace. 
Designs  and  echoing  vaults  and  flowers  rare. 
As  were  no  corpses  underneath  the  place. 

I  stood  upon  the  sands,  and  forth  beheld 

The  ever-changing  but  immutable  sea. 

Whose  crooked  shore  of  billows  loudly  belled 

And  'larmed  the  proud  conceits  that  played  in  me. 

What  baubles  are  we  filled  with  evil  pride. 

Which  from  the  scant  informidable  soul, 

Would  stink  in  Hell  (if  we  that  shall  have  died 

Be  worthy  such  a  penitential  hole.) 

I  thought  that  if  in  pleasure  I  be  found 

By  you,  do  not  recoil  in  ugly  fright. 

Seeing  my  brow  with  shrunken  horrors  bound, 

For  I  have  sorrows  for  the  longest  night. 


28  i^or  I  am  dead,  (or,  death  is  couched  in  me) 

Which  to  forget  is  now  beyond  my  part. 
To  lock  the  landscape  with  a  door  and  key 
Were  less  than  bolt  that  knowledge  from  my  heart. 
O  world,  my  world,  I  have  surveyed  your  charms; 
Your  women  and  your  music  I  have  known; 
But  beauty  ever  tells  my  doting  arms 
The  form  I  clasp  is  death's  and  not  my  own. 
Your  wisdom  is  to  give  despair  a  drug. 
While  mouthless  Time  its  breathing  prey  devours. 
The  ignominy  of  death  for  us  is  dug; 
The  foul  taint  of  mortality  is  ours. 

The  world's  philosophy  is  faintly  writ 
To  sweeten  to  our  fears  the  nasty  grave, 
Else  the  most  holy  saint  that  hope  e'er  quit, 
In  death  would  tumble  like  a  poisoned  slave. 
Out  of  the  icebergs  of  the  past  we  come; 
What  frigid  end  awaits,  we  cannot  gauge. 
Is  pride  so  deaf  or  is  creation  dumb 
That  still  we  hope  for  life  beyond  our  age? 
As  light  prevails  in  the  surrounding  dark, 
Hope  shines,  a  lamp  within  our  meagre  ken; 
But  when  the  oils  are  sucked  within  the  spark, 
The  waiting  darkness  closes  in  again. 

IvIONEI<  JOSAPHARK 


29 


j0^      ROBERTSON'S     -^ 


-^      PUBLICATIONS     -^ 


BOOKS    BY    CALIFORNIA    AUTHORS 
Binkley,  Christian  K. 

"Songs  and  Sonnets  for    a    House    of 

Days"  .  .  .         $  1.25  net 

Delmas,D.  M. 

"Speeches  and  Addresses"  .  2.50  net 

Fletclier,  Robert  Ho^ve 

"Observations    on    Chinatown."       With 

illustrations  by  Ernest  Peixotto  3.50  net 

Gerberding,  Elizabeth. 

"The  Golden  Chimney."    The  story  of  a 

boy's  mine  .  .  i.oo  net 

Hibbard,  Grace 

"California  Violets."    A  book  of  verse  i.oo  net 

"Wild  Roses  of  California."  Abookof  verse        i.oo  net 

Hyde,  Mabel 

"Jingles  from  Japan."    With  pictures  by 

Helen  Hyde  .  .  -75  net 

Josaphare,  Iiionel 

"The  I<ion  at  the  Well."      A  remarkable 

poem  ...  .50  net 

"Turquoise  and  Iron"  .  .  1.20  net 

Keeler,  Charles 

"A  Season's  Sowing."      Quatrains  and 

couplets.    Decorated  by  lyouise  Keeler  1.25  net 

Hand  ilhnninated  edition               .  10.00  net 

"Idyls  of  El  Dorado."      Decorated  by 

I^ouise  Keeler       .               .               .  1.25  net 

"Songs  of  the  Sea."                .               .  i.oo  net 

IieTvls,  Arthur 

"The  Rag  Tags."  An  illustrated  juvenile  1.25  net 


30 


Robertson's  Publications 

Continued^ 
Lichtenstein,  Joy 

"For  the  Blue  and  Gold."    A  story  of 

life  at  U.  C $  1,50  net 

Markham,  Edwin 

"The  Man  with  the  Hoe."       Original 

edition,  in  paper i  .00  net 

O'Connell,  Daniel 

"Songs  from  Bohemia"  1.50  net 

Robertson,  Louis  A. 

"The  Dead  Calypso,"  and  other  verse. .  1.50  net 

"Beyond  the  Requiems" 1,00  net 

"Cloistral  Strains" .75  net 

Robertson,  Peter 

"The  Seedy  Gentleman."     Designs  by 

Gordon  Ross 1.50  net 

Skidinore,  Harriet  M. 

"Roadside  Flowers."    A  book  of  verse  . .  i.oo  net 

Stoddard,  Charles  Warren 

"In  the  Footprints  of  the  Padres." 
Reminiscences  of  early  days  in 
California   1.50  net 

Students  of  the  State  University 

"  Under  the  Berkeley  Oaks."  Stories  of 
college  life  by  the  students  of 
U.  C 1.00  net 

Ventura,  L.  D. 

"  Coeur  de  Noel."  With  French  exercises. 

Illustrated .50  net 


Robertson's    Publications  31 

Continued. 

The  Dead  Calypso,  and  other  Verses 

By  Louis  cA.  %)bertson  $1.50  net 

The  book  has  fire  and  grit  in  it.  It  has  also  much 
tenderness  and  sadness.  It  runs  the  gamut  from  the  most 
spiritual  aspirations  to  the  rage  of  desire  defeated  in  satia- 
tion. In  the  matter  of  form  all  the  verses  are  exquisitely 
done.  In  the  matter  of  feelinj  the  intensity  is  poignant. 
Always  the  song  has  color  to  it,  has  blood  and  bone  and 
flesh  woven  through  it.  Mr.  Robertson  is  a  lover  of  the 
sonnet,  and  his  book  contains  a  dozen  poems  in  that  form 
that  are  of  exquisite  workmanship,— 6"/.  Louis  Mirror. 

Sonnets  and  Songs  for  a  House  of  Days 

By  Christian  "Binktey  $1.25  net 

Mr.  Binkley's  work  is  not  only  the  most  notable  contri- 
bution yet  made  to  poetic  literature  in  California,  but  will 
place  its  author  in  the  front  rank  of  American  poets.  The 
man  has  sung  because  there  was  music  in  him,  not  light 
opera,  but  concordant  harmonies,  soft  and  sweet,  or  with 
the  sweep  of  a  majestic  rhythm.  We  know  not  which  is 
the  more  to  be  congratulated,  Mr.  Binkley  for  his  work,  or 
California  for  Mr.  Binialcy. —Sacramento  Bee. 

A  Wanderer's  Songs  of  the  Sea 

^y  Charles  Keeter 

11.00  net 

Recently  published.  Bound  in  cloth,  cover  with  hand- 
illuminated  design  by  Mrs.  Keeler,  of  an  old  Spanish 
galleon.  Beautifully  printed  on  heavy  Japan  deckle 
parchment. 


A.  M,  ROBERTSON 

J  26  Post  Street  -  San  Francisco* 


3^ 


In  the 
Rooms  of 


Holiday  Suggestions 
Elder  Sp  Shepard 

238  Post  Street 


Main  Room  —  Books  of  all  kinds.  General  I^iterature, 
Holiday  Editions,  Fiction  and  Current  Publi- 
cations. A  discount  of  20  per  cent  from  pub- 
lished price  save  on  net  books. 

Jlrt  Room  —  Objects  of  Art  for  the  collector  and  lover 
of  the  beautilul.  Ceramics,  Brocades,  Brasses, 
J.  I,  S.  Photographs,  I^eather  Work  of  Miss 
A.  C.  Crane. 

Children's  Room -Gay  with  a  host  of  bright  books 
and  pictures  for  the  little  ones.  Usual  20  per 
cent  discount. 

Old  Book  Room  -  Fine  Books  for  the  Private  I^ibrary 
in  leather  bindings. 

PubUaticons  of  Elder  and  Shepard.  Distinctive - 
Original  —  Important. 


Descriptive  Hlustrated  Catalogues  upon  Application. 

Elder  8r  Shepard 

258  Post  Street      '     San  Francisco 


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